Roll call

Livingston Truluck Columbia City Council convened around 9 am Wednesday, July 15, on the third floor of City Hall for its regular meeting. Mayor Bob Coble and Councilman E.W. Cromartie were absent. Council members present were Tameika Isaac Devine, Kirkman Finlay III (acting as mayor), Sam Davis, Daniel Rickenmann, and Belinda Gergel.

City favorite

The city's July 2009 Employee of the Month award went to Sherwood Toatley of 911 Communications. He was introduced by Michael King , assistant city manager of public safety.

Finlay Park parking lot

Livingston Truluck of the Finlay Park neighborhood reported to council his neighborhood group of supporters included all sides of Finlay Park, not just Governor's Hill, and all of them objected to the activities (day and night) taking place in the parking lot between the homes of Governor's Hill and Finlay Park.

Truluck said the objectionable activities have been continuous for the past 11 years. Davis was appalled such was happening within two blocks of Columbia Police Headquarters.

Finlay was appalled at the move to close the parking lot without council consideration. Apparently Coble and Cromartie decided between the two of them the parking lot should be closed.

Finlay asked the city attorney if that followed the letter of the law; and the city attorney said no, it did not.

Truluck said the closing of the parking lot put a stop to the problems, and he asked council to keep the parking lot closed while it decided what to do.

Rickenmann recommended opening the lot for daytime access and closing it from 6 pm to 6 am until the next regular meeting of council, August 5.

Gergel asked what, exactly, was the Police Department's plan to manage the mess, and City Manager Gantt said a plan was prepared for presentation to council.

Council decided to wait until August 5 to review the plan to control or eradicate the activity above Finlay Park next to Governor's Hill houses.

For 11 years, according to Truluck, the parking lot has been a popular venue for prostitution of all kinds among all kinds, drug dealing, and the like. Mayor Coble was in China, but at the last meeting of council when this was made clear in graphic terms, he suggested a meeting.

Neighbors close to Finlay Park suggested the city police kick backsides and take names. Truluck asked council to do its job.

Zoning public hearing

At 10 am, council held an announced zoning public hearing.

Among many items approved, the only objection came from a two- house investor in the Rosewood area who wondered if the new CC (Community Character) overlay would prevent her from demolishing her houses (both more than 50 years old) and selling the land for full market value. She was told yes only if, in fact, her houses were more than 50 years old and if the Design Development Review Commission couldn't honor her setbacks or lack thereof; and maybe the DDRC would ask her to truck her houses, beautiful examples of the height of architectural history they must be, to other agreeable sites to save the houses.

Then she said she already had commercial zoning, and council said fine, never mind, she could do just about whatever she wanted. The overlay concerns itself with residential zoning only.

Owens Field Skate Park

Council approved a contract with the low bidder, AOS Specialty Contractors, for $450,185 to build the Owens Field Skate Park.

Lease

The Tapp's Building first floor was vacated by The Athlete Factory for failure to pay rent for about a year. The city has scored a new tenant for the first floor, an architecture firm.

The American Institute of Architects issued a warning recently to its members that the outlook in commercial construction for 2009 suggests a 16 percent drop in business, and another 12 percent on top of that in 2010.

Finlay argued in favor of a personal guarantee from the head of the firm or a letter of credit in the amount of a year's rent or some such assurance the new tenant won't walk without paying the year's rent.

Then there was discussion of the new tenant's status as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city.

The new tenant is Stevens & Wilkinson of South Carolina which is the firm responsible for selling Mayor Coble on the convention center headquarters Hilton deal and the scheme that had to be terminated for unfeasibility and projected huge financial losses for the city.

S&W was in the hotel deal for A&E fees of about $2.3 million, while the replacement Hilton development team now in business on the same site spent no more than $400,000 for full architectural and engineering services.

S&W has already been paid about $700,000 for work never built, and its lawsuit is to collect the balance remaining in the $2.3 million fee.

Next meeting

Council meets again in City Hall on Wednesday, August 5, at 9 am.